Flavobacterium arsenatis sp. nov., a novel arsenic-resistant bacterium from high-arsenic sediment

A novel bacterial strain Z(T) was isolated from the high-arsenic sediment in Jianghan Plain, China. The strain was Gram-staining-negative, rod-shaped and formed yellow colonies. This bacterium is capable of tolerating arsenate and arsenite, with MICs of 40 mM and 20 mM, respectively. The strain also possesses catalase and does not produce oxidase. The nucleotide sequence of the 16S rRNA gene of the isolate showed the highest similarity (96.9%) to that of the type strain of Flavobacterium soli. On the basis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis and the phenotypic properties of strain Z(T), it was assigned to the genus Flavobacterium. The major respiratory menaquinone was MK-6 and the predominant fatty acids were iso-C15:0, summed feature 3 (containing C16:1ω6c and/or C16:1ω7c) and iso-C15:1G. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, three uncharacterized aminophospholipids and four unidentified phospholipids. The DNA G+C content was 32.1 mol%. Based on the phenotypic and genotypic data presented in this article, it can be concluded that this isolate represents a novel species of the genus Flavobacterium, for which the name Flavobacterium arsenatis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Z(T) ( = CCTCC AB 2013048(T) = KCTC 32397(T)).